Electric safety device for elevators



(N Mod 0 e H. E. HOLMES & C. .P. GEOSVENOR.

ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS N0. 443,282. Pat canted Dec. 23,1890'.

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UNITED STATES FFICE.

ATENT HERBERT E. HOLMES, OF EST SPRINGFIELD, AND CHARLES F. GROSVENOR,OF LUDLO'W, MASSACHUSETTS.

ELECTRIC SAFETY DEVICE FOR ELEVATORS.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 143,282, dated December23, 1890.

Application filed March 26, 1890- Serial No. 345,313. (No model.)

T at whom it may concern;

. Be it known that we, HERBERT E. Romans and CHARLES F. GnosvENoR,citizens of the United States, respectively residing at est Springfieldand Ludlow, in the county of Hampden and State of Massachusetts, haveinvented new and useful Improvements in Electrical Safety Devices forElevators, of which the following is a specification.

[O This invention relates to electrical safety devices for elevators.

The object of the invention is to provide means, in combination with theelevator and the elevator-well or hoistway, operative to stop theelevator on the occasion of the'projection of any object or article onthe car or platform across and beyond the floor through which thehoistway passes or the projection of any object on one of the floorsinto the hoistway. For instance, assuming that the elevator is equippedwith the safety appliances and a person is riding up on theelevator-platform with his foot or arm extending across the edge of theplat form, as the elevator approaches the next 2 5 floor above theextended foot or arm coming in contact with a part of the safetyappliance will insure the stoppage of the elevator before the platformcan reach the floor to inj ure the person; and, furthermore, assumingthat a person is on a floor leaning over into and looking down theelevator-Well, and the elevator should be moving down toward him, a partof the safety appliance on the moving elevator-platform will strike uponthe head 3 5 of the endangered person, resulting 1n the almostinstantaneous stoppage of the elevator; and to the end of providingsafety appliances for elevators having the capabilities, substantiallyas above indicated, the invention con- 0 sists in the construction andcombination of parts, all substantially as will hereinafter more fullyappear, and be set forth in the claims.

. Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part ofthis specification,

in which the invention is illustrated.

Figure 1 is a perspective and sectional view of a hoistway and elevator.Figs. 2 and 3 are enlarged illustrations of circuitclosing devicesemployed in the safety appliances, to be hereinafter referred to.

In the drawings, A represents a hoistway, and B the elevator, which isshown as suspended by the rope which passes over the supporting andguiding sheaveto and around 5 5 the drum d at the top of the hoistway.There is also'shown in Fig. 1 driving mechanism for the drum andpower-shipping devices, which are common in elevators, and, as usual,are controlled by the power-shipping rod or medium g, which extends fromthe top to the bottom of the building, as usual, in proximity to thehoistway.

w and :1: represent metallic contact-pieces supported in proximity toeach other under each floor, near the hoistway opening therein, saidcontact-pieces being insulated the one from the other, and the saidcontact-piece w is extended by the spring-finger 9 thereof to lie underthe contact-piece so, more or less, -10 in the manner shown in Fig. 2.Bindingposts 10 and 12 are provided, one for each of saidcontact-pieces, to which the electric wires ll and 15 are respectivelyconnected, one of said wires thence running to one pole 7" of anelectro-magnet 16, the other Wire running from its binding-post to thebattery and thence to the other pole of the electromagnet.

D represents a movable partsuch, for in- So stance, as a bar or board,as shown in Fig. 1- ranging parallel with and in proximity to the edgeof the floor, which is at one side of the hoistway, said bar D beingsuitably supported and guided in ways of the hangers ff for an upwardmovement; but such bar is, under its gravity, normally maintained in itslowermost disposition shown in Fig. 1. Said vertically-movable bar isprovided with the laterally-extended stud 1', which normally rests uponand depresses the finger-piece 9 of the contact-piece 20, so that suchfinger is moved out of bearing upon the contact 00, and whereby thecircuit is continued open. Of course, as will be apparent, as theelevator ascends 5 any article or part of a person thereon whichprojects across the plane of said bar D will, on the abutment thereofagainst said bar, raise the latter, the stud 2' moving upwardly,permitting the upward spring of the finger 9 to close the electricalcircuit, and at such time the armature 18 will be drawn upwardly,

effecting a movement of the shipper-rod to stop the elevator throughmechanism to be now described.

19 represents a swinging lever suitably pivotally mounted on asupportingplate or standard 20, and said lever lOhas a pin-andslot connection witha disk 22 or other suitablyformed part, which is also mounted by apintle 2 3 on said plate 20. Said disk 22 is provided with thecatch-notch 24: in its periphery, with which the hooked end of anangular lever 25 engages. Said angular lever 25 is pivotally supportedat its elbow, and its arm 26 is extended to intersect the circular lineof movement of a hammer 27, which is radially carried on apivotally-mounted disk or part 28. Said part 28 has a notch 39 at itsupper portion, with which en gages a sharp projection 30 of the armature18. It is assumed thata downward movement of the shipper-rod g isrequired to start the elevator and of course an upward movement to stopit, and j represents a dog on said shipper-lever at the portion thereofwhich is in proximity to the last-deseribed electrically-actuateddevices. The normal rclations and dispositions of said parts to bealways maintained when the circuit is open are as shown in thedrawings-that is, the notch 24 of the disk 22 is aboutin a linehorizontally extended from its center of rotation and there confined by thedetent or angular lever 25. The lever 19 is so swung that its arm 32 isin its most depressed position, its other arm or extremity 33 beingcorrespondinly upwardly inclined, and the spring 34:, which, as shown,is so applied to said lever as to exert its reaction thereon to swingthe arm 32 thereof upwardly. The armature, which is swung away from theelectro-magnct by the projection 30 thereof engaging in the notch 29 inthe part carrying the hammer 27, maintains the hammer in the upliftedposition. The dogy' on the shipper'rod g is so adjusted that thedownward movement of the shipperrod will place the dog not quite, thoughalmost, into contact with the arm 32 of the lever 19. In the upwardtravel of the elevator, should any circumstance, as hereinaboveexplained, effect the closing of the circuit, the movementof thearmature permits the dropping of the hammer, which in turn swings theangular lever or detent out of its engagement with the disk when thespring 3i may effect the swinging of the lever 19 and the lifting of theshipper-rod to stop the elevator, which stoppage is practicallyinstantaneous, and itwill be clearly understood that an article, evenupon and projecting beyond the platform of the elevator, on striking thebar D will effect the stoppage of the elevator before the platform haspassed from the level of the lower edge of said bar to the level of thebottom of the floor from which said baris supported or suspended.

The safety devices employed for guarding against injury to persons whomay be on the floor near the hoistway and looking down the latter as theelevator descends from above are illustrated in Figs. 1 and 3, and, asshown, consist in insulated contact-pieces 37 and 38, supported on thebottom of the elevator-platform, and the contact-piece 37, having aspring-finger 39, the normal recoil of which being sutlieient to carryit to bear upon the contact-piece 3S, and to close a circuit formed bythe wires 40 and 42, in which circuit is the eleetro-magnet 36 and thebattery .3.

it represents a vertically-movable partsuch, for instance, as the bailshown in the drawingswhich by its terminals is pivotally supported fromthe bottom of the elevatordatt'orm in an oblique or downwardly incliningposition, so that the cross-bar 0 lies about under the edge of theplatform next to the floor. This bail is held against swinging down intoavertical plane by thehooked support 45. The armature 18 for theelectromagnet 36 aetuates devices between such electro-magnet and a dogZ on the shipperrod 9 for movinsaid dog downwardly, which devices aresubstantially like those already described as being controlled by theelectromagnet 16, with the exception that the lever 19 isspring-constrained to act downwardly on the dog Z instead of upwardlythereon, as does the lever 10 act upon the dog and said devicesintermediate of the armature 18 and lever 19 comprise the disk 22, towhich the lever is connected by pin and slot, the angular detent-lever25, and the hammer 27, carried upon the part 28, with which the armature has a detent engagement. Assuming that the shipper-rod g has to bethrown to its uppermost limit of movement to secure the downward travelof the elevator and that the dog Z thereon, which, when the dog j is inproximity to the arm of lever 19, is removed from and is below itsrespective lever 19', as seen in the full lines in Fig. 1,is in itsupper most position and in proximity to and under the lever 1f), asindicated by the dotted lines, also indicated by Z in Fig. 1, themovable part or bail it being then from any cause, as hercinbeforesuggested, raised as the elevator descends, (as by such bail strikingthe head, arm, or foot of a person 011 the floor, which part may beprojected into thehoistway,) the iinger 39 may spring to contact withthe contact-plate 38, closing the circuit and insuring the downwardswinging of the lever 19 and the downward movement of the shipper-rod toimmediately stop the elevator. The electric wires 4.0 -2, which by theirone ends move with the elevator, are necessarily arranged in a loopform, as at at.

What we claim as our invention is 1. The combination, with thecontact-pieces 11' and a, suitably supported on the floor ad jacent thehoistway, the one to having the spri n g-fin ger f), the horizontal baror part vertically movable and supported from the floor adjacent itsedge at the hoistway and provided with a' stud i, of a power-shippingrod provided thereon with a dog, an electro-mag net, and wires runningtherefrom to each of said contact-pieces, and one of said wirescomprising an electric generator, and a lever 19, mounted to swing andto move said shipperdog and having an operative connection with saidelectro -1nagnet, substantially as described.

2. The combination,with suitable supports adjacent to the hoistway, oftwo contactpieces, one having a finger normally adapted to bear upon theother, and a vertically-movable part suitably supported, guided, andlocated along near the hoistway and normally adapted to force thespring-finger of the one contact-piece away from the other, anelectromagnet and wires running therefrom to each of saidcontact-pieces, one comprising an electric generator of thepower-controlling me dium for the elevator, a swinging lever 19, locatedfor an engagement with said powercontrolling medium and having thespring 34 applied thereto, the pivoted disk or part 22, provided withthe catch-notch 24, and to which said lever 19 has a pin-and-slotconnection, the angular detent-lever 25, the hammer 27 and its notchedcarrying part 28, and the projection 30 of the armature of saidelectro-magnet, adapted to engage the notch in said hammer-carryingpart, substantially as and for the purpose set forth,

HERBERT E. HOLMES. CHAS. F. GROSVENOR.

Witnesses:

WM. F. BELLOWS. G. M. CHAMBERLAIN.

